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Using PowerShell to update an user image in Active Directory

The following example uses PowerShell™
to update an user object in Microsoft Windows Server® Active Directory®.
It allows you to write one image to the user object thumbnailPhoto attribute specified by it's unique username attribute. This thumbnailPhoto can than be made visible in Office and Outlook. Other software packages may also support these images.
There are some issues replicating the thumbnailPhoto attribute depending on the Active Directory level on the servers. Actually the schema must be modified so the attribute replicates to the Global Catalog, something the Exchange 2010 setup procedure fixes for you. This script works around the problem by deposing the image on all Domain Controllers. When running it shows all the Domain Controllers it can access at the moment to modify the image attribute.
As this script must be able to modify the Active Directory, it must be run under an user account with administrative rights.

Prerequisites for the image:

File size : <10KB

Pixels : 96x96

# **************************************************************************
# * This PowerShell script is an example how to update an Active Directory *
# * property on all domaincontrollers in an Active Directory environment. *
# * This script must run with an user account that has update rights *
# * for the Active Directory (such as Administrator) *
# * This example updates the user image for an user from a local disk *
# * without using Exchange or Outlook. *
# * (C)Copyright 2014 - 2019 vanSoest.it by Johan van Soest *
# **************************************************************************
# **************************************************************************
# Set up the variables.
# This is where you can customize username and image file path.
# **************************************************************************
# Define the Active Directory unique username$UserName = "johan"# Define the file path to the user photo$FilePath = "C:\users\johan\temp\johan-small.jpg"# **************************************************************************
# Main()
# **************************************************************************# Clear the screen before writingcls# Get a byte array containing the Photo$Photo = [byte[]](Get-Content$FilePath -Encoding byte)
Write-Host"This PowerShell script updates the photo for user $UserName on all Domain Controllers."# Load the Active Directory PowerShell providerImport-Module ActiveDirectory
# Get all the Domain Contollers in a set$DCs = Get-ADDomainController -filter *# Set the photo for UserName on all Domain ControllersForEach($DCin$DCs){
Write-Host"Updating server "$DC.HostName
Set-ADUser -server $DC.HostName $UserName -Replace @{thumbnailPhoto=$Photo}
}

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Topic created

:

01-05-2017

Topic last edited

:

01-05-2017

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